βNavigating the West: George Caleb Bingham and the Riverβ is an exemplary feat of scholarly and curatorial acumen. Both the exhibition and accompanying catalogue bring historical and artistic breadth to a defining motif found in one artistβs oeuvre: riverboat denizens on the Missouri and Mississippi rivers. That the American painter George Caleb Bingham (1811β79) was not a great artist shouldnβt detract from the efforts of The Amon Carter Museum of American Art in Fort Worth and the Saint Louis Art Museum, the showβs organizers. Nor should kudos be withheld from Elizabeth Mankin Kornhauser, the Metβs curator of American painting and sculpture, and the assistant research curator Stephanie L. Herdrich. Theyβve installed βNavigating the Westβ with a steady eye for the links between Binghamβs drawings and paintings. Donβt worry: this isnβt a βspecialists onlyβ endeavor. The most heartening thing about the show is its accessibility. In terms of what it has to tell us about the quiddities of style, βNavigating the Westβ is, in the best sense of the phrase, user-friendly.
It doesnβt hurt that the centerpiece is Fur Traders Descending the Missouri (1845), a staple of the Metβs collection and the exhibitionβs sine qua non. Binghamβs masterpiece beggars literary explicationβas does any picture worth its salt. A grizzled older man, smoking a corncob pipe, sits in an impossibly slim boat; though his hands have placed an oar in the water, there is no sense of propulsion. To his right is a dark-haired boy, possibly Native American, casually